I just installed both sides axles for my friend with a rebuilt autozone axle. they are still clicking when you turn, and i dont know which one it is. What is a way to tell which one is the bad one. Thanks

 

I would make sure both sides poped in the to place when you put um in. Get under the car and give each one a wiggle, mabye youll get lucky.

 

they're both in all the way with no leaks. they just click when turning.. not much but they do. if they click more when turning right, does that indicate the right axle being bad?

 

also.. can ball joints cause clicking sounds when you turn. I dont think so but I just need to ask. all the joints have ripped boots on this car... but even still, i dont think joints would make clicking sound.. would they?

 

Jack the car up, turn the wheel, see what happens?

 

Grasp each axle shaft and see if there is any play in either one of them. There should be none whatsoever. If there is any in either one, that is your culprit.

I'm pretty sure the axle will click no matter which way the wheel is turned, so you can't tell by that.

 

can this be done with the axle still in the car? thanks

 

yes you have to do it while they are on the car, because the axle shaft should have zero axial play if the axle (outer joint) is in good shape.

 

it ended up that one of the axle, the splines were too long. The other axle i got from autozone had a bit of play on the butt end of the axle, the part that goes into the tranny. Is that part allowed to have slight amount of play?

 

my vatozone axles vibrate. cheap pieces of ****. I need better axles anyhow

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mingbling96 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it ended up that one of the axle, the splines were too long. The other axle i got from autozone had a bit of play on the butt end of the axle, the part that goes into the tranny. Is that part allowed to have slight amount of play?
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The inner joint is supposed to be able to move both in and out and around, to accomodate the suspension moving up and down (axle needs to extend slightly as the suspension moves). The outer joint, however, should move ONLY around, it should NOT move in/out axially at all.

 

the inner joint had a lot of play.. like when i wiggle it side to side with the axle out of the car, you can hear it softly clicking, like its hitting something. Is that normal?

 

Go into an empty yard or car park or something and drive around in circles. It will be obvious which side the sound is coming from. This sounds almost defintely like CV's

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mingbling96 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the inner joint had a lot of play.. like when i wiggle it side to side with the axle out of the car, you can hear it softly clicking, like its hitting something. Is that normal?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The inner tripod on the axle shaft has 3 big bearings. These slide into 3 big grooves inside the tulip joint cup (the big metal part w/ the splines that goes into the differential). When the inner joints get worn, these grooves become slightly wider than the bearings, which allows for some play (if you hold the axle shaft, the tulip joint will be able to twist back and forth slightly). This is what causes bad vibrations when accelerating up across a certain range of speed. Within that range, the axle hits some kind of harmonic frequency that sends the vibrations ripping throughout the car.

When you buy an axle rebuild kit, what you're doing is replacing that tulip joint and the bearings on the inner end of the axle.

Now as for clicking when turning, that mean the outer joint has gone bad. When that happens, you must replace the whole axle as you cannot replace only the outer joint. A rebuild kit will usually come with a new boot for the outer joint, but that's it.

But for most people, replacing the axle anyway with a rebuilt unit is easiest, as rebuilding the axle can get pretty messy and takes time and more effort and knowledge than merely changing the axle. Just make sure you get a decent rebuilt axle, not the CCT crap that AutoZone and NAPA sells.

 

patrick, didn't you have a bad experience with the rebuilt autozone axles?

 

Yep, I had to change out both axles like 3 or 4 times before I finally got a decent set that didn't vibrate.

My original axles had over 160K miles on them, and both had torn inner boots, yet neither one of them vibrated or clicked or anything. Yet all those CCT ones vibrated as soon as I put them on and drove the car, until finally I got the set I'm on now, still CCT, but they've been pretty good. Still though, I wouldn't go with CCT again.

 

go in revers and turn the wheel, which ever way u turn the wheel thats the one that is bad